REVIEW: Emma Stevens at Bailiffscourt chapel

The late radio legend Sir Terry Wogan was the master at spotting female vocalists with breathtaking talent.
Emma StevensEmma Stevens
Emma Stevens

Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy both became household names after their music repeatedly featured on his top rated Radio Two breakfast show.

Given his knack for divining the very best, it’s no surprise that Emma Stevens was also welcomed back to play three live sessions on his Weekend Wogan.

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Her voice is as pure and perfect as it gets with a raw emotion hewn from her own life experiences.

With two albums under her guitar string, the multi-instrumentalist is about to release her third ‘To My Roots’ this year.

Despite a packed schedule, the singer who lives near Horsham still found time to perform a full concert in the tiny thousand year old chapel at Bailiffscourt hotel and spa at Climping on the West Sussex coast.

The candlelit event not only showcased her mesmerizing music - but the powerful and often poignant stories that had helped shape and create them.

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Being dumped by her boyfriend on her birthday was the inspiration for How to Write A Love Song.

It was the death of her beloved mother in 2012 that ignited Sunflower.

It’s not hard to detect her love of country music in her own work. But her writing is more subtle and complex than that simple label implies. Her two albums Waves and Enchanted reveal a mix that is as eclectic as it is organic.

There is a real naturalness in all she sings.

Sir Terry hailed her as ‘just magical’. The Bailiffscourt audience would not disagree.